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New transit-expansion survey is bullish. Are voters?

A three-county voter survey shows strong support for expanding transit and light rail. But does that mean voters will approve it this year?

That’s one question Sound Transit board members will wrestle with in the coming weeks, because they were in this spot before voters trounced Proposition 1, a $47.2-billion roads-and-transit package last November. Pre-election polls showed support for Prop. 1 but in the end it failed.

More recently, more than 9,000 people in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties responded to a 47-question survey asking for their thoughts on another, smaller ballot measure.

The survey ran online from Feb. 20 to March 9. Another 819 were surveyed by telephone Feb. 22-28.

According to EMC Research, which conducted the phone survey and tabulated the results, the response was encouraging. Among other things the results showed that:

Majorities said it was “urgent” to expand major forms of transit: light rail, commuter rail, and regional and local bus service, beyond current levels of what’s operating or, in the case of light rail, what is being built. Survey responses were on a 1-to-7 scale of urgency, with levels 5 to 7 being the most urgent. Seventy-eight percent of web respondents said mass transit should expand and 77 percent of phone respondents agreed. More than 60 percent said commuter rail, light rail and regional bus service should expand and more than 50 percent said local bus service should improve.

A large majority supports expansion of the region’s system of rail and express buses – 82 percent in the phone survey and 78 percent in the online survey. Mailed versions of the online survey hadn’t been counted as of Thursday.

Majorities named roads, traffic and transportation the region’s biggest problem – 69 percent in the online survey and 52 percent in the phone interviews.

Asked to rate individual projects in order of importance, respondents said it was “extremely important:” to extend the light rail system from downtown Seattle to the Overlake area of Redmond and to add cross-Lake Washington bus service that will run every few minutes on the Evergreen Point Bridge. There was strong support for other projects such as new freeway access ramp to transit centers and adding park-and-ride slots.

Some Sound Transit board members were encouraged by the results. King County Councilman Larry Phillips said it shows growing interest in light rail now that the initial segment is being built; Issaquah City Councilman Fred Butler said commuters want action to relieve congestion.

“We heard (people) want something smaller and faster” in a package, said a Kirkland City Councilwoman Mary-Alyce Burleigh.

Others took a more cautious view. King County Councilman Dow Constantine said while there’s lots of transit support, other factors such as the faltering economy and post-Proposition 1 political climate must be considered before another measure is attempted.

King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson said pre-Proposition polls last year “were very optimistic” about its passage – and wrong.

“It doesn’t discourage me,” she said of the new survey results. “I just don’t know if we can use it as a determinant.”

Apparently not. Ric Ilgenfritz, Sound Transit’s chief communications officer, said the surveys were done chiefly to get voter “feedback” about project ideas and were “not designed to inform the prospects of a ballot measure.” In other words, don’t use it to predict the outcome of an election.

Board members are scheduled to decide April 10 whether to approve a draft ballot measure, and decide for certain on a fall proposal by June or July.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..